


The Smartest Idiot

by rinthegreat



Series: Physics Majors [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-06 17:39:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1109692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinthegreat/pseuds/rinthegreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Companion piece to "The Stupidest Genius".  His sophomore year in college, Sasuke witnesses a lost freshman stumble into his advanced classical physics lecture. Forbidden to leave by the teacher, the blond stays the entire time. NaruSasu? Or are the raven's feelings doomed to be unrequitted?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Smartest Idiot

**Author's Note:**

> Also on my fanfiction account under the same penname.

            The first time he saw the blond was his second year at the university.   He’d gotten to the lecture hall early, wanting to get a good seat before everyone else arrived.  He was sitting quietly, reading his book and thoroughly ignoring everyone in the area when the doors slammed open.  A freshman – and an extremely obvious one at that – shouted an obnoxious farewell to his friends before stumbling in.  Sasuke observed him over the top of his book.  There were still a good three minutes before class started, more than enough time to finish this chapter, yet something about the newcomer held his attention.

            The guy was blond, tan, and more attractive than anyone Sasuke had ever seen at Konoha University.  He was built like an athlete: all lean muscle.  But despite his impressive looks, the Uchiha would’ve bet the book in his hand that the blond was in the wrong room; there was no way he would’ve willingly signed up for Advanced Classical Physics.

            As if sensing he was being watched, the guy turned and smiled at him.  “Hi!  My name’s Naruto.  And you are?”

            “Hn,” Sasuke responded.  He had made it a rule long ago to never date anyone based on looks alone.  This was made even easier if he just didn’t talk to them in the first place.

            Naruto frowned.  “Hey did you even here me?”  Sasuke ignored him.  “Hello?!”

            But any response Sasuke may or may not have had was interrupted by the entrance of their professor.  He had a patch covering one eye and spikey grey hair despite being no older than 37.  Quickly, the Uchiha set his book aside and forgot all about the blond sitting next to him.  Professor Hatake was well known for being an absolutely brilliant professor, if you were willing to learn.

            “Welcome, welcome,” he began, smiling at the students.  “To Advanced Classical Physics.  If you have found yourself in the wrong lecture hall, as some unlucky freshman does every semester, I implore you to remain for the entirety of the lecture.  Leaving disrupts the class, which means I have to repeat the last few minutes next lecture and we all know there isn’t enough time in a semester for that.”

            A shifting next to drew Sasuke’s attention, and he saw Naruto trying in vain to sneak out quietly.  The raven smirked.  Professor Hatake also had a reputation for calling out students who tried to leave before the end of class.

            Sure enough…  “Young man!”  Naruto turned sheepishly.  “I said you will sit down for the entire lecture.”

            To the Uchiha’s surprise, Naruto tried to argue his way out of it.  “But, sir, I’ll miss my first day of Ancient History if I do.”

            The professor’s smirk matched Sasuke’s now.  “Well then, perhaps you shouldn’t have gotten lost.”  Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted.  “Sit down, young man, and I don’t want to hear anything else come from your mouth unless I specifically ask.”

            The blond grumbled, but sat down.  Sasuke would have gloated, but Kakashi had turned to the board and was already writing things down.  “I never use powerpoint,” he began.  “And whiteboard markers are too expensive to continue to replace.  I don’t like to repeat myself, so I suggest you read the chapters ahead of time and come ready to take notes.  I don’t believe in homework; if you want to do busy work you can do it on your own time.  There are three tests: two midterms and one final.  You need to pass them to pass the class.  Any other policies involving grading and schedule can be found in the syllabus’s here,” he gestured toward the large stack of papers on his desk.  “There is no website for the class, so consider these packets your bible.  But do not grab them until the end today,” he looked pointedly at two girls in the front who were half standing.  They quickly sat down.

            Internally, Sasuke cheered.  _This_ was his kind of teacher.  He could only imagine the pain the blond next to him was feeling; he’d probably never had to take a class this intense before, even for a day.

            Then it got even better.  “And that’s all for the introduction.  Any questions can wait until after lecture and be addressed to my TA’s.  Let’s get started.”  Professor Hatake proceeded to jump into a 45 minute lecture covering everything from vectors to the relationship between distance, velocity, and acceleration.  At exactly 11:50 am, he stopped talking and dismissed the class for the day. 

            Sasuke stood up feeling refreshed; he hadn’t had a class so intellectually stimulating for quite some time.  In fact, he almost forgot about the blond sitting next to him until he heard a groan and saw Naruto stretch his arms above his head.  Sasuke’s first guess was that the blond had been sleeping the entire time, but a glance down displayed a page of notes detailing the last ten minutes of lecture, complete with questions at the bottom.

            Naruto looked up at Sasuke and grinned.  “Some lecture, huh?”

            “Hn.”  Sasuke didn’t deem him worthy of a response.  Once again, the blond frowned.

            “Whatever, asshole.”  The blond continued to frown while throwing his notebook into his backpack before he turned and left.

            For a moment, Sasuke regretted not speaking with him.  He was, after all, an extremely attractive male _and_ he’d managed to take notes in an advanced physics class.  But the feeling passed as soon as the Uchiha exited the hall.  It didn’t matter; after all, he’d probably never see Naruto again.

            To his surprise, the blond returned two days later ahead of time for the lecture.  He didn’t say anything to Sasuke despite sitting next to him again.  Once Professor Hatake was finished speaking, Naruto jumped up and got in line, pink paper in hand.  After that, he showed up every day, took notes, and left, but never again did he try to speak to Sasuke.

            By the end of the semester, Sasuke was starting to question his rule to not develop romantic interest in the blond.  At this point, he knew Naruto was intelligent; he’d passed the class with flying colors, so there shouldn’t be anything holding him back.  Right?  Wrong.

            Naruto was an idiot.  Yeah, sure, he clearly had book smarts, but when it came to common sense he was the dumbest person Sasuke had ever seen.  His friends needed to stop him from crossing the street without looking – he wasn’t spying, it was a coincidence! – and he’d frequently come to class bragging to his friend Shikamaru about some challenge he hadn’t turned down.  By the end of the semester, Sasuke had heard about every dumb thing the blond had done since starting college.

           Naruto’s idiocy was re-demonstrated their second semester of Advanced Classical Physics.  Then they were together again in Modern Physics 1 and 2 Sasuke’s junior year.  But the real evidence that Naruto was a dumb blond wasn’t proven to the raven by any of the stories told to Shikamaru before class began.  In fact, he never heard or saw Naruto’s dumbest moment in person.  Instead, Sasuke knew something was up by what he _didn’t_ see: Naruto had skipped class.

            Sasuke didn’t ask anyone about it; Uchiha’s don’t display concern over others.  But the second day he couldn’t contain his curiosity any further.  He knocked on the door before entering.

            “Oh do come in, Sasuke, it’s not like I could be doing something important,” Professor Hatake, or Kakashi as Sasuke now called him, said not looking up from the novel he was reading.

             Normally Sasuke would’ve taken this moment to crack a comment about Kakashi’s bad habits of reading porn during his office hours.  Kakashi would’ve then responded by saying no students dared come in to talk anyways. 

            But this wasn’t one of those times.

            “Kakashi,” Sasuke began slowly.  “I have a question.”

            “Don’t you always?”  He ignored the jab.

           “Where’s the blond idiot who’s always in class sitting next to me?”  Kakashi was no longer his professor, but he would know who Sasuke was talking about.

           “Oh you mean Naruto?  Funny story actually.”

           Sasuke raised his eyebrow but didn’t ask anything further.  Kakashi would tell him; the guy was a gossip, even if he pretended he didn’t care.

           “He’s on academic suspension until after the hearing.”

           “What hearing?”

           “This is the funny part, actually.  He was caught plagiarizing.”

           “…Plagiarizing?”  That was wrong; Naruto wasn’t the type.

           “Yeah.  I guess for one of his English classes they had to write some kind of research paper, and he ended up copying almost half of _Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem_.”

           “He plagiarized Shrödingers wave equation?”

           “But the best part is that he claims he didn’t know.  A physics major who didn’t know about Schrödingers wave equation!  Can you believe it?”  Kakashi was giggling madly at that one.

            Now, had it been anyone else, Sasuke would’ve immediately believed that person had tried to take the easy way out and copy a paper not as well-known as, say, the general theory of relativity paper written by Albert Einstein.  But this was Naruto they were talking about.  This guy was so dense he couldn’t recognize sarcasm on his own.  It was entirely plausible he’d rewritten the scientific paper by accident.

           “I believe him,” Sasuke said softly.  That took Kakashi for a spin.

           “What?”

           “I said I believe him.  Naruto didn’t know Newtons laws until you pointed them out to him that first semester; he told Shikamaru that.  I don’t think he looks into any of the physics theories or equations until being taught them by a professor.  We haven’t covered wave theory yet; it’s possible he doesn’t know anything about it.”

           The grey-haired man was silent a moment.  “You really believe him?”

            “Yes.”

            “Hmm…”  The professor stared off into the distance for a while.  Finally, he glanced upwards toward the clock on the wall.  “Goodness, look at the time.  I have a class to teach.”  Confused, Sasuke looked up.  Kakashi never had a lecture after 2 pm.  It was now 3:05.  Seeing the Uchiha’s confusion, the grey-haired professor spoke up.  “I’m subbing for Yamato today.  Now scoot.  Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

             Sasuke left, but he knew for a fact Yamato didn’t have a sub that day.  Besides, Kakashi never agreed to sub for anyone; he was too lazy.  The Uchiha had a suspicion regarding what the man was really up to, but decided to let things be for now.

             His suspicion was proven correct the next day when Naruto returned for class.  Shikamaru clapped the blond on his back when he came in and took his customary seat next to them.  “Where’ve you been man?  I thought you were dead.”

            “Nowhere,” Naruto looked exhausted and ended up just staring at the floor.  He slowly took out his notebook and turned to a blank page for the day’s notes.  Sasuke almost burst out laughing when their professor, ironically Yamato himself, announced the topic.

            “Today, we’ll be talking about Schrödinger’s wave equation.”

            Naruto growled beside him.

            Quantum Mechanics came and went, and soon Sasuke had graduated college.  He didn’t get very far though before he decided to return and pursue his PhD.  He planned to study under Kakashi, not only because they got along, but also because he enjoyed the topic Kakashi researched.

            A year later he was joined by none other than the blond idiot himself.  Being the only two grad students in over five years to be allowed to study under the strict man, they eventually gave up on hating each other and became friends.  By this point, Sasuke hated himself for not trying sooner.  Naruto appeared to be 100% straight, and Sasuke wished he’d had the balls to convince the other to experiment back in their undergraduate days.  He was so sure he was too late.

            Late one Thursday night, Sasuke was just finishing up with some experiments.  He glanced at his watch.  1:02 am flashed green at him.  Damn.  He’d stayed up too late working again.  It was going to be hard to get up in time to TA his physics lab at 8.

            Yawning, Sasuke shut off the lights and walked back to the office he and Naruto shared.  He needed to download the results from tonight and send them to Kakashi before he could leave.  Just his luck too; the computer was off.  He slammed his finger onto the start button and collapsed into his chair, exhausted.

            A loud snore from the other side of the cube wall caused him to jump.  “Naruto?”

            No response.

            He walked over to the blond’s area; the computer would take ages to boot anyway.

            The top half of Naruto’s body was sprawled out on his desk, papers knocked to the ground, and half a cup of coffee had spilled onto the floor leaving a sticky residue.  Sasuke was positive the blond had fallen asleep hours earlier, probably while in the process of analyzing his own test data from the day before.

            His hair was a mess and his clothes looked rumpled, like he’d been wearing them for too long.  He was even drooling on his desk.  All in all, the last thing Sasuke should’ve thought while looking down at the 22 year old was that he was attractive.  But the raven couldn’t help himself.  Ever since that moment freshman year, Naruto had been the only one Sasuke wanted.  The blond had been hot then, and he only seemed to get better with age.

            It wasn’t just the looks though.  Sasuke had admitted to himself – though he would never say it out loud – that Naruto was one of the smartest people he knew.  To top it off, the blond was fun to be around, always cracking jokes and pulling pranks.

            So Sasuke couldn’t really be blamed for wanting to kiss him just once.  Hell, the guy was sleeping.  What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.  The Uchiha leaned in, his heart pounding faster already.  Six years of unrequited love could do that to a man.

            The kiss was chaste, just a brushing of the lips, but it was enough to set fireworks off inside Sasuke’s chest.  He wanted more, oh how he wanted more.  So he did what any normal person would; he kissed Naruto again.  This time it was harder, almost enough to wake the blond.

            Naruto lay still.  The Uchiha decided he’d push his luck just a little.  After all, Naruto _was_ sleeping with his mouth open.  It was like he was asking for it.  Carefully, Sasuke stuck his tongue between Naruto’s lips.  He almost sighed.  The blond tasted just how he imagined.

            Suddenly, a hand wrapped itself around the back of his neck and he felt himself slam painfully against the table.  He opened his eyes – when had he closed them again? – and looked up to see Naruto standing over him, expression unreadable.

            Excuses popped into his head.  _I’m drunk.  I dropped something in your mouth and had to get it with mine.  I didn’t mean to._   None of them seemed plausible.  Instead, Sasuke settled for staring up at Naruto, mouth opening and closing like a fish.

            “And just what are you doing?”

            His thoughts flew out the window, and the raven ended up saying the first thing that came to mind.  “I thought you were asleep.”

            “Well I was, but it’s hard to sleep with someone else’s tongue stuck down your throat.”  Was it just him, or did the blond sound amused?

            “Sorry.”

            “Don’t be.  I wasn’t asleep anyway.”  Naruto scratched the back of his head awkwardly, giving Sasuke room to stand up.  He didn’t.

            “What?”

            “I, uh, woke up when I heard you start your computer.”  Was Naruto blushing?  No.  It must just be the light.

            “So why the act?”

            “I wanted to see what you’d do.”

            “Hn.”  It was the only intelligent thing Sasuke could think to say at this point.  Naruto seemed to realize he’d have to be the one to speak.

            “Look.  We’ve been dancing around each other for years.  I wanted to see if my theory was correct or not.”

            Dancing around each other?  Theory?  What on earth was Naruto talking about?

            “And you thought fake sleeping would work?”

            “How else was I supposed to get you to kiss me?”  The blond retorted.  He was definitely blushing.

            Sasuke felt taken aback.  “You…wanted me to kiss you?”

            “Didn’t you?”  Nothing Naruto said made sense anymore.  The wheels in the raven’s head were spinning rapidly, trying to connect the dots.  It appeared as though his unrequited love wasn’t so unrequited after all.

            “Wait.  You’re saying you…like me.”  It wasn’t a question.

            “And you call me the idiot,” the blond was grinning.  Sasuke didn’t respond.  Instead, he pulled Naruto down to his level and captured his lips again.

            Kissing Naruto awake was infinitely better than kissing Naruto asleep.  Soon, they were practically attacking each other, trying to somehow convey feelings that hadn’t been expressed for years.  Sasuke felt himself simply holding on for dear life.  Finally, they broke apart.

            “I am _not_ an idiot,” Naruto said, resuming the conversation from earlier.

            Sasuke didn’t feel much like talking; he’d been enjoying what they were doing earlier far too much for that.  Instead he pulled Naruto toward him once more before responding.  “Smartest idiot I’ve ever known.”  He was late to lab the next morning


End file.
